Nintendo’s New Design Points Wii Toward the Showers

Nintendo’s streamlining the Wii. Well, its box. And its price. And it’s severing support for GameCube and GameCube controllers. But most attention seems to be going toward the box. You’ll be able to place it horizontally now, instead of vertically. So you’ll have more surface for dust.

And dust might be the operative word here. The move looks like Nintendo simply means to keep its pipeline moving until the Wii U hits stores in 2012. Another tea leaf to read: Updating controllers like this tends to be a system’s last act. With Wii U announced and shown off at E3, there’s no reason to put much more into the original Wii. Still, Wii can depart with its head high: It’s sold 87 million units since its launch in 2006, making it the top-selling game console ever.

If this news has you all hot, bothered and wanting the new console right away, you’d best move to Britain. So far, Nintendo says it will only be available there. But most observers believe it will be released worldwide before too long.